Ya know when you get a box in the mail and you are so excited to open it. Especially when it is from a company that is amazing. Then you are told you can't open it until a certain day and time. Yep, that's what happened.
As you know my favorite conference to attend was made virtual and I couldn't attend it in person. I was sad that I wouldn't be seeing my friends in person. One of the best parts of the conference is the conversations that take place during meals and in the evening. The people who attend are Rock star educators from around the world. I am privileged to learn from all of them.
This year was different because I had been asked to present at the conference. I had all my slides ready to go, I had everything I wanted to say written down. I didn't present until the second day.
All the times they gave us were in Eastern time. I'm not in Eastern time. So I had to make sure I was logging in at the correct time.
The beginning was a cute video which they always start the conference with a cute video. It was people packing for DENSI, then taking their suitcases to another room. I laughed so hard. Then it started. We had to have our box next to us and they did a count down for when we could open it. We got a selfie light. Everything had a great purpose. We got a selfie light because we let our light shine as an educator. It was fun. They know how to make us feel appreciated.
Then we had some great sessions. They had breakout groups to go to according to your role in school. So I was with the tech and library people. It was great to talk to them.
Day two they had what was called an icebreaker. Usually I'm not a fan of icebreakers. But this one was amazing. We had to click on the link then we were in a "room" then we were sent to another room and joined by another person at the conference. There were questions you could answer to keep the conversation going. You had 8 minutes with each person. I was so excited when one of the people was someone I knew. We were both excited to see each other and catch up. How awesome it was to meet people. The DEN is awesome at making sure there are connections made at the conference. I don't know how they are able to pick people who are willing to make connections and make everyone feel connected. I have made life long friends at past conferences.
I got on early to my session. All my tech worked.I was so relieved. That was the part that made me nervous. It is really difficult to present sitting on your couch talking to your computer. I really like presenting in person and looking at the faces of the people. I had a friend watching the chat and answering some questions that came up. Everyone seemed to learn something new. It was great to present.
I loved every minute of the conference. It did seem odd that when it was done at 3pm, it was done. There was no DENmazing race, no DENivator fair, no late night name that tune. Part of me really missed those times.
The last day of the conference was more presentations about what is coming next and what they are working on and how to use this with remote learning.
The hardest click I had to make was the leave meeting. It asked if I wanted to leave the meeting and I wanted to say no. I wanted to spend more time with my friends. I clicked leave the meeting and was sad to say good bye to my friends.
I was a big mix of emotions. I was so happy to be able to attend, I was so sad to not see people in person.
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